“Yes!” I jumped where I was standing, breaking the resonance between my boot and another pair of boots I had kept a few steps away, but I did not care. A huge smile spread across my face. I had finally been able to complete the rune I was working on.

  I was not sure whether to call it a rune or an array. I decided to let the lieutenant handle the naming and other details.

  I shifted my attention to my squad. Garran’s defense team and Varrick’s attack team were facing each other, while Barry’s distraction team stood behind Garran’s group. They were simulating real combat. The attack team’s target was the distraction team, which was countering them, while the defense team protected them. Kael stood to the side, coordinating between them, while Peter stood across from him, analyzing their combat.

  I was a little far from the squad, experimenting with the rune. I paid some attention to the training activity, but my main focus was on the rune work. Finally, after one night and half a day of work, I had working proof.

  I quickly made my way toward Kael while calling Peter to join me.

  “Peter, Kael, I am leaving to meet the lieutenant. Keep working on this drill, then run through the sentry drill. I feel the new recruits are still lagging in observation abilities, and even their guarding positions are not up to the mark,” I said.

  Then I started to leave. I was in a hurry to show my work to the lieutenant.

  “You did it?” Peter asked, sounding a little surprised.

  “Yeah. It is not very elegant, but it should work for now. I should be back in an hour unless the lieutenant requires something from me,” I said. I ran back, picked up another pair of boots that was lying on the ground, and kept running toward the infirmary.

  During the afternoons, the lieutenant was usually in the infirmary. Once I reached it, I made my way directly inside. I no longer had to inform the guards outside. As a sergeant of Company Eleven, I had higher authority than most people there, at least within the infirmary.

  I saw the lieutenant making rounds, which meant he had a patient to take care of. Instead of disturbing him, I simply signaled my arrival and walked toward his office. I stood outside his door. After fifteen minutes, the lieutenant arrived. When he walked toward me, he had a frown on his face.

  “Why do you have boots in your hand?” he asked.

  “Oh, I have a working rune for Silent Step, like we discussed,” I said.

  “Oh, you already have it?” he said as he walked into his office. “Come in.”

  I followed him inside and took a seat after the lieutenant pointed at the wooden chair opposite him.

  “So what materials are required to create a functional rune?” he asked.

  “Sir, I would like to say it is not highly effective, and I am sure cities would have better runes and could get far better results with the right materials,” I said, not wanting to overcommit about the rune. I had already seen its flaws. The biggest flaw was that I could only keep it active while walking slowly. The next flaw was that it dulled noise instead of eliminating it completely. Even at slow pace, the noise reduction was only around forty five to fifty percent, whereas Barry reduced more than eighty percent of noise even while jumping and running.

  The lieutenant did not comment and simply waited for my answer.

  “As for the requirements, wind crystal dust to draw the wind symbol and some mana liquid. Better boot material should improve the results, especially leather from wind-affinity beasts, but it works on our regular boots. My affinity for wind mana is low, so I need a wind mana crystal to activate and maintain it,” I said.

  The lieutenant nodded without showing any reaction on his face.

  Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  “Would you like to share your rune design with the army? If you do, and if it is something that can be applied to other squads, this will earn military merit depending on its effectiveness. Irrespective of whether you share the design or not, I will arrange one more wind-affinity mana crystal for you,” he said.

  “Yes, I would like to share my design,” I said after thinking for a second. Military merit could provide immeasurable benefits, and if someone observed my boots, they could easily figure out the function of the symbols. I did not know ways to hide a rune and its true purpose, so sharing it made sense.

  “Good. You can share it with me. I would like to see what my subordinate has come up with,” he said, finally showing a small smile. “I will take care of filing this rune under your name. It will be registered with the rune department of both the army and the kingdom. Only the army will be allowed to use it. You will earn merit throughout your service as long as your rune remains useful,” he explained.

  Once again, I was reminded of how well organized the army truly was.

  “So is it one rune or a combination of multiple runes?” he asked.

  It seemed the lieutenant was familiar with the Aegis Array, which was considered a single rune.

  I scratched my head. All my initial assumptions had turned out to be wrong. I did not think my final rune was close to the Aegis Array. Sure, it used some of the array’s concepts, but the Aegis Array functioned as a whole, where damaging one tower could disrupt or destroy the entire array. In my rune, however, each boot functioned independently. I also found that creating wind-element films at the level of a single boot was far easier than maintaining a large-area effect.

  “I am not completely sure. It leans more toward a combination of multiple runes. The entire squad should have the same rune on their boots, but as the controller, the rune on my boots are a little different,” I said as I picked up a pair of boots to show the lieutenant.

  “My boots have a larger resonance symbol to increase its range. I was not able to create a chain link, so I am using the resonance symbol on the boot as a central hub. It then uses wind mana and the resonance symbol drawn at the center of the boot,” I said, pointing at the smaller rune symbol in the center of the sole. Creating chain link between boots would have made it far more mana-efficient and allowed the range to be extended significantly, but I was not able to achieve that. Instead, I had to rely on brute force and my [Mana Manipulation] to link the boots.

  “For mana intake, I am using this circle. Inside it, I have drawn the wind element and wind compression symbols. From the circle, four mana lines extend outward to all sides of the boot, each connecting to wind element and wind compression symbols and covering almost the entire area of the boot. This way, we create a wall of compressed air around the boot, eliminating most of the noise,” I said, showing all four sides and the runes to the lieutenant.

  Finally, I turned the boot over once more.

  “One last symbol we are using is this anchor symbol, which anchors the wind film from the bottom to the closest solid surface,” I said.

  “Why do you need this symbol? Will it not limit your squad’s speed and mobility? Moreover, without it, your noise cancellation should be higher,” the lieutenant asked.

  “Yes, sir, but most of my squad does not have wind affinity or training to move with reduced friction because of the air film. I fell multiple times yesterday trying to walk with reduced friction,” I said with a smile. “This symbol reduces the risk. Instead of creating the air film directly on the bottom of the foot, it creates an air film anchored to the solid surface, keeping friction high enough to walk properly,” I explained.

  Barry does not have this problem because he has trained for it, and his skill provides him with extra balance and stability.

  “Good, Edward. This does not look like the work of a new rune disciple, but the work of a rune master. This might turn into something highly beneficial to the army,” he said, surprising me.

  “Really? I thought nobles and wind element users would have far better and more effective methods than this rune,” I said.

  “Sure, they do, but that is what makes these runes so useful. Your rune can be used by anyone, and the cost of making it is low. It can be applied to any squad, and all you need is one low-quality wind crystal,” he said. Then he continued, “More importantly, because of its low cost, it can serve as a good training rune for rune disciples, new recruits during survivability training, and for hunting practice.”

  “Even recruits with high wind affinity could use your rune to practice their control.”

  Suddenly, I remembered the wolf hunt we went on as part of recruit training. Wearing boots that could reduce noise would be a great addition for learning how to perform sneak attacks on beasts in the forest.

  “The registration process will take time, but it should be finished by the time you return from your mission,” the lieutenant said as he passed me a few parchments. “Use these to draw your final rune and explain its detailed use, along with why each symbol is used, and submit them to me by this evening.”

  I took the parchment and discussed a few more details about the rune and how I planned to use it during missions.

  Once dismissed, I made my way to the supply yard to collect new pairs of boots for my squad. Every squad was allowed two pairs of boots while on a mission. After collecting the boots, I headed back to the training yard. My plan was to draw the runes on all the new pairs after finishing training so that I could use them tomorrow to practice a few formations using this rune.